1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shifter for an automatic transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a shifter for an automatic transmission used in a vehicle such as an automobile has been widely known. As the automatic transmission shifter, there has been known one type adapted to arbitrarily switch between an automatic mode and a manual mode. This type of automatic transmission shifter capable of switching between an automatic mode and a manual mode is proposed, for example, in JP 2007-230424A.
A shifter disclosed in JP 2007-230424A comprises a shift lever which has a spherical portion provided at a lower end thereof and held by a shifter base rotatably in a frontward-rearward direction and in a rightward-leftward direction, wherein the shift lever is coupled to an automatic transmission via a cable. The shifter further comprises a transmission mode-switching member which is attached to the shifter base swingably in the frontward-rearward direction and adapted to be switchably coupled to and uncoupled from the shift lever. In the shifter, when the shift lever is manually moved in the frontward-rearward direction along a main gate provided in a gate plate, the transmission mode-switching member is swingably moved in the frontward-rearward direction, so that the automatic transmission can be operated in an automatic mode. Otherwise, when the shift lever is manually moved from the main gate into a sub-gate on a right side thereof, the shift lever is swingably moved in a rightward direction about the spherical portion and thereby uncoupled from the transmission mode-switching member, so that a shift mode of the automatic transmission is switched from the automatic mode to a manual mode.
In the shifter disclosed in JP 2007-230424A, the shift lever and the transmission mode-switching member to be coupled together or uncoupled from each other are assembled to the shifter base individually. Consequently, this structure is likely to cause a variation in relative positional relationship between the shift lever and the transmission mode-switching member. If such a variation in positional relationship therebetween occurs, it will become difficult to smoothly switch between the coupled state and the uncoupled state. Moreover, it will become difficult to improve positional accuracy of each of the shift lever and the transmission mode-switching member with respect to a plurality of range positions set in the main gate and sub-gate.